George Douglas of Rodinghead

This page is a stub -
You can help complete it. It realtes to a father and son.

The estate of Rodinghead is within the boundaries specified in the
charter of Peter de Curry, previously referred to, and was doubtless
comprehended in Bargour or Dalhangan. It was purchased about the end of
last century by George Douglas, factor to the Portland family. At his
death he was succeeded by his son, the late George Douglas of Rodinghead,
who died in March 1850. He married a daughter of Hugh Campbell of
Mayfield, by whom he had no issue, and the estate is now the property of
Mr. Douglas's eldest surviving sister, the wife of Captain Hay, brother
to Major Boyd Hay of Townend.

Hugh Campbell of
Barquharrie was a Captain in the 85th Regiment. He married, 1797,
Sophia, youngest daughter of Thomas Barber, Esq. of Greaseley,
Nottinghamshire. He died 5th January, 1824, and left issue, —

1.
Hugh Bruce. 2. Thomas Alexander. 3. William. 4. John. 1.
Anne, married to the late George Douglas, Esq. of Roddinghead. 2.
Annabella, married to William Comyn, Esq. of the County Clare. 3.
Sophia Elizabeth, married to Denis Browne, Esq. of Brownestoun, Ireland.

The widow of Captain Campbell died at the Park, Nottingham, on
the 20th January 1860, aged 85.

George Douglas of Rodinghead was
a cornet in the Ayrshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1824George Douglas of
Rodinghead was a Land Tax commissioner for Ayrshire in 1836

At
Radford, near Nottingham, George Douglas, Esq. of Rodinghead, Ayrshire,
to Anne, eldest daughter of the late Hugh Campbell, Esq. of Mayfield, in
the same county. (1829 or 1830 20th Jan??)

Major James George
Hay Boyd younger of Rodinghead. By feu charter, dated 14th March 1733,
George Boyd, Farmer in East Overloan, acquired from William Kelso, Esq.
of Dankeith, the lands of Townend and others in favour of himself in
life-rent, and Robert and William Boyd, his sons, in fee. William Boyd
disponed his half of the lands to his nephew, George Boyd, surgeon, in
the service of the Honourable the East India Company, eldest son of
Robert Boyd. George Boyd also succeeded to his father's half, and thus
became proprietor of the whole of the lands. He was succeeded therein by
his brother, John Boyd, sometime of Bengal, Indigo Planter, who was
succeeded by his nephew, William Hay Boyd, the eldest son of his sister,
Margaret, who was succeeded by his nephew, the present proprietor, Major
James George Hay Boyd, late of her Majesty's (?24th) Regiment of
Infantry, who obtained his majority in the Crimea, where he served from
the first to the last of that expedition. He is the only son of the late
Captain Francis Hay, of Her Majesty's 34th Regiment of Infantry, and Mrs
Elizabeth Douglas Hay of Rodinghead and No. 1, Wellington Square, Ayr,
daughter of the late George Douglas of Rodinghead. Since his succession,
in 1859, Major Hay Boyd has, by purchase, added to his estate of Townend
several adjoining farms.

George (of Roddinghead) Douglas
Died 26 May 1826 Roddinghead, Ayrshire Family Anne Campbell

George Douglas, Writer of
Rodinghead , Ayrshire left a will dated 27 December 1850

Rosa
capreolata. Ayrshire Rose.The present Mr George Douglas of
Rodinghead (factor upon the Duke of Portland's estates in Ayrshire)
resided at Loudon Castle at that period; and he perfectly recollects the
sowing of the American heps, and the wide rambling rose-plants which
sprung from them. Several of the neighbouring proprietors in Ayrshire
got plants of the new rose for their gardens. Among others, the late Mr
Dalrymple of Orangefield received a plant from Mr Douglas; and he having
trained it against the garden-wall, " it ran amazingly," (as Mr
Underwood expresses it), the rapidity of its growth, and length of the
shoots, surprising every body. The nurserymen of Kilmarnock and Ayr
having procured cuttings and layers from this plant, bestowed on it the
name of the Orangefield Rose; in places at a distance, however, it soon
came to be known by the more general title of the Ayrshire Rose. The
original Orangefield specimen was in existence little more than twenty
years ago; but the garden having, about that time, come into the
possession of a tenant, who preferred currant bushes to rampant roses,
it was grubbed up and destroyed. Several of the original plants,
however, still remain at Loudon Castle, some trained against the walls
of the factor's house, and others in old hedges on the farm of Alton,
near Loudon. Mr Douglas has likewise some of the original plants growing
in hedges, and against walls, on his own property of Rodinghead.

KILMARNOCK
BANKING COMPANY

(1802-1821)The Kilmarnock Banking Company was
a small provincial bank, established in 1802. Its partners consisted of
James Fairlie of Bellfield; Mungo Fairlie of Holmes; Patrick Ballantine
of Castlehill, Ayr; George Douglas of Rodinghead; and William Parker
of Asloss. This latter also acted as Cashier and Manager.

In
1821, the partnership was dissolved and the business taken over by
Hunters and Company of Ayr. One of the conditions of the takeover was
that Hunters & Co. should establish an agency (branch) in
Kilmarnock. This was duly set up, under the management of Charles D.
Gairdner. Gairdner's son, incidentally (also Charles), was later to rise
to prominence as General Manager of the Union Bank of Scotland.

Management of the Kilmarnock business did not always run smoothly.
Hunters & Co. asked a local man, Quintin Kennedy, to assist Gairdner.
But disagreements arose between the two about lending decisions.
Their differences were irreconcilable, and in 1830, Kennedy departed. He
set up his own Ayrshire Bank, in direct competition with Hunters & Co.
It was subsequently absorbed by the Western Bank of Scotland in 1845